


Red Tulips

by blinke182



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Hanahaki Disease, Mention of blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 14:32:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14522682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blinke182/pseuds/blinke182
Summary: That girl always carried a book marked with a bookmark that had a tulip on it. Sometimes she used a different colored one, but it was usually red.





	Red Tulips

**Author's Note:**

> I got the itch to write a Hanahaki fic but didn't want to write for a specific fandom so here.

She refused to believe she’d ever like her back. The beautiful girl with the long flowing locks that looked like a chocolate waterfall was a great friend of hers. She always carried a book with a floral bookmark in it, marking her place. Always a tulip. They sometimes changed colors, but usually it was red. She loved red tulips. 

Red tulips… 

She was content to leave it like this, until the first ones came. The girl touched her shoulder and she felt like she was gonna cough up a lung. She excused herself and ran to fetch some water. She had a bad coughing fit, and when she looked at her hands after it had subsided, she found it. 

A red tulip petal. 

She didn’t know what this was, so she went to the internet. She discovered Hanahaki, a disease where plants grow inside your lungs, usually caused by unrequited love. The only cures were to either have it surgically removed, along with all feelings towards that person, or confess your feelings. If you didn’t do either of these, the plants will grow so much they become fatal. She was curious as to why it was a red tulip petal. She read on to find that the flowers the person coughs up usually have some connection to the subject of their love. 

So, the red tulips were for that girl… No, she’d never love her back, no way! She was sure the girl only liked boys. She had been around when she got a boyfriend, and when she dumped him. She couldn’t tell her. She would be rejected, and the flowers would be her end. So she kept the feelings, and the flowers, to herself. 

Her friend, a boy who had experience with the Hanahaki disease, found out when she had a coughing fit in front of him and showed the three red tulip petals she coughed up. He asked her who they were for and what she planned to do about it. 

She didn’t want all feelings for the girl to be removed with the Hanahaki plants, but she didn’t want to tell her either because the girl couldn’t possibly love her back.   
He reminded her of what not doing anything can do. He almost lost his life because he was stubborn and refused to tell his now-boyfriend about his feelings. It got so bad he couldn’t breathe properly without assistance. He coughed up bloody petals, and he felt terrible all the time. He tried to get her to listen, but she wouldn’t change her plan. 

Every day, she’d see the girl in the cafeteria of the college, and every time the girl spoke to her, she felt a familiar tickle in the back of her throat, making her need to cough. She would try to hide the flowers, and luckily the girl never really noticed. 

One day a few weeks later, the girl had to go to her class, so she ran off. She could feel the coughing coming as the girl left, so she leaned over a trash can just in case. 

This time, the petals were bloody. 

He came up to her and reminded her that the flowers could kill her if she refused to do anything about it. 

She refused.

A couple of weeks later, she arrived at school. She was paler than a sheet of paper, a little bit of blood on her jeans. The girl immediately got worried and demanded to know what was going on. She had been coughing for weeks now, and she was getting very worried. 

He looked her square in the eyes, and she knew what she needed to do. 

“Anna, I love you. I’m coughing up flowers for you! I have been for several weeks. I was content in letting them go, letting them get to me, but I couldn’t bear seeing you sad. I love you,” she said, holding back the coughs that threatened to come.

“I…” Anna started. She took a deep breath and smiled. 

“I should have known. I found a couple of flowers that didn’t make the trash can. I wondered why they looked all bloody. Why would you let this happen? I love you, too, Sarah.”

Sarah looked at Anna in the eyes, unsure of how to feel about this development. 

Then the coughs racked her body. She ran to a trash can and let them happen. After a minute or so, she collapsed to the floor. There was an entire plant, roots and all, covered in blood in the trash can. 

_______________________

Sarah woke up in the hospital to a hand cradling hers. She looked up and saw Anna at her bedside, smiling.

“You’re awake. I’m glad,” Anna said, a smile on her face. Sarah smiled weakly. 

“I was so stupid to let it get this bad. If I knew you liked me back this wouldn’t have happened,” Sarah said. 

“Yes, you were. And I’m glad you finally came and told me. If you picked the other method, I would have lost someone important to me.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”


End file.
